ST. LOUIS (MO)
Post-Dispatch
By Bill McClellan
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
09/28/2005
On the day that the Vatican's gay-hunters began their work here in St. Louis, I received a letter from a priest I admire.
"I am a Roman Catholic priest from the Archdiocese of St. Louis who happens to be gay," he wrote. "When it comes to my Church and her teachings on homosexuality, I cannot help but find myself both hurt and ashamed. I, like so many theologians, fellow priests, sisters, and Americans, find the Church's teaching regarding homosexuality inconsistent with the broader understanding of human dignity, respect and equality.
"The Church chooses in matters of sexuality to bring very literal interpretations to isolated passages of Scripture as a proof-text for a static, narrow interpretation of natural law. Any point of view that slightly differs or is critical of the current teaching on homosexuality is automatically excluded from discussion. Thus the teaching on homosexuality grows more and more insulated and isolated from the actual experience of human life and the moral reflections of other serious persons of faith and good will. Every day, the Church, which I love so much, appears in her words and actions more prejudiced, violent and evil toward gay persons. To add insult to injury, the Church masks its own violence against gay persons in the language of 'love,' maintaining that by boldly proclaiming timeless truth to a relativistic world, she is remaining faithful to the Gospel and showing true compassion to persons with homosexual tendencies.